Readers of the late Douglas Adams’ classic book “The Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy” will no doubt remember the following exchange,
which occurs when protagonist Arthur Dent confronts the local bureaucrat
who is attempting to demolish his house:

`…You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call
attention to [the plans] had you? I mean like actually telling anyone or
anything.’
`But the plans were on display…’
`On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.’
`That’s the display department.’
`With a torch.’
`Ah, well the lights had probably gone.’
`So had the stairs.’
`But look, you found the notice didn’t you?’
`Yes,’ said Arthur, `yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a
locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the
door saying “Beware of the Leopard.’

Sadly, the practice of deciding on a course of action, forcing it
through by any means necessary, and then retroactively pointing out that
one’s critics could have voiced their objections at the proper time and
place is not just the stuff of comedy...

ntonio Rodiles, curator of the independent scholarly forum Estado de SATS [es], was released in Havana last Wednesday after enduring over three weeks of detention. Rodiles was arrested
on November 7, along with numerous other bloggers and civil society
advocates on the island, including well-known blogger and attorney
Laritza Diversent, author of the blog Jurisconsulto de Cuba [es] (Cuban Legal Advisor). There has been no report of Diversent’s release as of December 3, 2012.

Yes. The trouble with corrupt gov'ts is that they take care of themselves and use money to get around sanctions, and let the people suffer...

Over the past three weeks though, local media in Iran have
highlighted allegations of mismanagement and mishandling of imports by
the government. This has contributed to the drug crisis and revealed
corruption and incompetence at the highest levels.
Hossein Ali Shahriari, the head of the parliament's health commission, stated
[fa], “The government has paid no attention to the domain of health and
medicine.” He added that there has been “virtually no currency” for the
budget and the import of medicines over the last six months.
The minister of health, Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi, also criticized the budget allocation, saying:
“We don't know what happened to the hard currency allocated to the
purchase of medicine.” According to her, only 24% of the required budget
for the purchase of medicine has been provided by the Central Bank.